You know those uber low-rated cable channels you can’t wait to surf by en route to “The Walking Dead” or “Boardwalk Empire?”

“We’re going to take a hard look at each service and those services that cost too much relative to the viewership, we’re going to drop them,” he says. He adds that “if you have a network that has hashmark ratings and isn’t going anywhere, we’re going to have a different conversation” in 2013 than before….

When the channels don’t perform, owners say “next year I’ll work harder and spend more money on programming and it’ll be good.” But Time Warner Cable, along with other pay TV distributors, can no longer pass those costs along to subscribers. With the economy “bouncing along the bottom,” Britt says, “the consumer is telling us that we can’t afford these prices anymore.”

Credit the Age of Obama for the still stagnant economy which is forcing everyone to do some belt tightening. It also could be a direct result of new, powerful streaming video competition.

Netflix’s streaming service remains a steal at roughly $8 a month, and Amazon Prime is slowly ramping up its streaming services. The latter simply must do something about its awful, imprecise content categories, though.

It’s easier than ever to stream content to your television. Smart TV sets are dropping in price and streaming devices like wireless Blu-ray players and Roku players let you connect your set to the web for a very nominal fee.

If that means less obscure cable channels in your provider’s bundle package, so be it.